Arsenal continued their good form and notched up their 12th away win in a row and a record equalling 8th away PL win in a row. Chelsea and Tottenham played out a draw, losing points. The two Manchester clubs suffered shock defeats and the Red Devils are off to their worst start in over a decade. Arsenal lead the league table, followed by Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. Southampton and Manchester City occupy the 5th and 6th places respectively and complete the top-quarter of the table. Moving away from the brief round up of this weekend’s games and onto the subject matter: This is the season where the likes of Eden Hazard and Aaron Ramsey are expected to take their game to the next level and establish themselves as one of the best in the English game. This week, I bring an in-depth analysis of Statistics of Aaron Ramsey, Yaya Toure, Eden Hazard and Paulinho and try to establish who has been the most complete mid-fielder so far this season.

I.Passing Comparison:

The first part of this analysis includes comparisons of Passing Zone stats of the 4 players.

Comparison of Passing Statistics

Aaron Ramsey has attempted 456 passes in all, completing 88% of them with a pass every 1.18 minutes. Further, Ramsey attempted 134 passes in the final 3rd and completed 78% of them.

Yaya Toure attempted a pass every 1.13 minutes, attempting a total of 479 passes with an accuracy of 91% and 115 passes in the final 3rd with an accuracy of 77%.

With a pass every 2.01 minutes, Hazard attempted a total of 268 passes with an accuracy of 81%, of which 159 passes were in the final 3rd with an accuracy of 78%.

Tottenham’s Paulinho completed 87% of his 319 attempted passes (a pass evey 1.69 minutes), out of which 102 passes were attempted in the final 3rd, 75% of which found it’s target.

Yaya Toure is the clear winner in this particular comparison with impressive all-round statistics. He is followed closely by Aaron Ramsey in the over all comparison, while Hazard has the best statistics for Final 3rd passes (Total and Accuracy). Lets us now move on to the next part of this analysis to find out who has the best Tackling Statistics.

II.Tackling Comparison:

Statistical Comparison of Tackling Statistics

Ramsey has attempted 33 tackles with an accuracy of 88% and a tackle every 16.4 minutes. He has also intercepted the ball on 10 occasions. In addition to this, Ramsey has attempted a ground duel every 6.28 minutes with an accuracy of 57% and 13 Aerial duels with an accuracy of 46%.

Yaya Toure has attempted a tackle every 49.1 minutes with an accuracy of 82% ( 11 tackles in all) and intercepted the ball 5 times. Further, he has attempted 42 ground duels with and accuracy of 52% and an aerial duel every 54 minutes with an accuracy of 70%.

With 11 tackles at an accuracy of 74%, Hazard has attempted 11 tackles in all and intercepted the ball twice. Hazard also won 51% of the 89 ground duels and 4 of the 6 aerial duels attempted.

Paulinho intercepted the ball on 12 occasions and attempted 14 tackles with an accuracy of 71% ( a tackle every 38.6 minutes). He also attempted a ground duel every 10.4 minutes with an accuracy of 56% and 12 Aerial Duels with an accuracy of 25%.

As can be seen from this comparison, Ramsey is miles ahead of the rest in the overall comparison. Paulinho has the most number of interceptions while Hazard has the best mins per ground duel and Yaya Toure the best aerial duel accuracy. With this, let us now move to the final part of this analysis.

III.Creativity and Attacking Comparison:

In the final part of this analysis, we will compare the statistics with regards to Creativity and Attack.

Comparison of Statistics of Creativity and Attacking

Hazard with a chance every 38.57 (14 in all) leads the table for most number of chances created. Paulinho comes second with 8 chances, followed by Ramsey (7 chances) and Yaya Toure (6 chances, a chance roughly every game).

Ramsey has created the most number of Clear Cut Chances and the most number of goal assists (2 each). Ramsey and Paulinho have had 6 shots on target, while Yaya Toure has the best Shooting Accuracy (71%).

Yaya Toure and Ramsey have scored 4 goals each, Paulinho has managed a solitary goal while Hazard has not been able to find the back of the net.

This analysis shows some very good statistics for Ramsey, Toure and Hazard. However, in totality, it is only fair to conclude that Ramsey is the winner. He has been in an impeccable form and contributing significantly in creating chances as well as converting them.

These statistics point out that Yaya Toure and Aaron Ramsey have been the more complete mid-fielders in the league thus far, with Ramsey comfortably ahead in the over all comparison. Ramsey has surprised many so far but it will be foolish to write off Hazard and Paulinho just yet. With majority of the games still to be played, we may have several changes but I am sure that these players will put in significant performances week in and week out.

Living up to the reputation of having a very good engine, the four players have had a very impressive season so far. Being a box-to-box player, Ramsey has been impressive in every department. He has been as effective an attacking midfielder as he has been a defensive midfielder. He has led the team’s attacks as well as gone back to assist the team’s defenders. At a press conference last year, Wenger had said that once Ramsey starts scoring, he will not stop. He is doing justice to the faith shown in him by the club and other teams must learn the art of nurturing a talent from Arsenal’s long serving manager, Arséne Wenger to give the game many more Henrys, Aan Persies, Fabregas’ and Ramsey’s. Eden Hazard has been called as Messi-in-the-making and Mourinho must allow him time and space to become the player that he has the potential to be. Paulinho and Toure are established names and have been doing fairly well ever since they began plying their trade in England. They are doing their bit to help the team get a favourable result in every game will need the support of their team-mates to help their teams achieve their respective objectives.

1/6th of the season is over and we now know which teams are struggling and which teams can be title contenders. Man Utd, to the surprise of many have been abysmal but it is not advisable to write them off. The coming month will truly establish who the real title contenders are and which players can be the contenders for the player of the season but I can say one thing with confidence that Ramsey and Toure will feature prominently in everyone’s list for the EPL’s Player of the Season.

Most of the big teams will be involved mid-week in Europe and Arsenal will perhaps play their toughest game of the season so far against the Italians, Napoli. All eyes will be on Gonzalo Hinguain, a player who Wenger admitted the club was after. The result of this week’s UEFA Champion’s League matches will give us a fair idea about which English teams could make it to the Knock-out stage.

Please note that the analysis and inferences drawn are based purely on statistics, which may not always correlate with the actual performances of the players. Some of you may have a different point of view or may look at the statistics differently, so feel free to share it with me here or on twitter (@SilverHawk_24).

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